Turning big digital ideas into reality

A team of engineers at Columbia University in New York recently used a 3D printer to make an edible cheesecake using food 'ink' as part of printed food project.

Jonathan Blutinger, an engineer at the University's Creative Machines Lab, told the BBC, "We can print chicken, beef, vegetables and cheese. Anything that can be turned into a paste, liquid or powder. The vision is to have a food printer mixed with a laser cooker that can be a one-stop-shop sort of kitchen appliance. It's your own personal digital chef."

To some of us, this entire concept may seem like the premise of a Michael J Fox film, but it turns out the future is very much here.

We are thrilled that we now have the means to empower our girls across technological frontiers, so they can become creators, makers, problem solvers, and entrepreneurs, or, perhaps even chefs!

Our unique Digital Co-Labs programme in flight

Sam Langatuki heads up a faculty that, on paper, works towards delivering and teaching competency using the latest digital tools, software and technologies. However, when you walk through our Technology spaces and see the machinery our girls are interacting with daily, you soon realise that Technology is more aspirational in nature, where design, inspiration, invention and problem solving all unfold before your eyes.

Many parents will have heard about our new cutting-edge Digital Co-Labs spaces, or, perhaps even seen some of the equipment in the flesh. These unique spaces and supporting programmes aim to make industry-standard digital tools accessible to our girls, as never before, and to create dedicated digital ‘labs’, with different zones to encourage greater collaboration and experimentation.

“I refer to it as an area for ‘Digital Makers’,” says Sam. “A hub that provide stimulus, support, skills, materials and advanced technology to nurture the inventive and innovative spirit of our students.”

The initiative comes after a significant monetary investment from the College, and the generous support of our Parents & Friends’ Association. “The incredible investment meant new tools could be purchased, to support the Junior School STRETCH Programme, and the Technology curriculum from Years 7-13," says Sam.

Our Senior School technology area has since been transformed, where classrooms and breakout spaces have been reimagined, and more tools and equipment await students, such as 3D printers, robotics and coding machines. It’s laid out as a series of dedicated labs called CoLab spaces – each with a different aim. The zones within the Digital Innovation Lab include: a fabLAB (digital printing and fabrication); roboticsLAB (applying computational thinking to test and show digital capability); and a digitalSTUDIO (supporting our students to become creators and to develop digital outcomes). Since the upgraded initiative started earlier this year, (after a delay due to the Auckland Floods), Sam has seen the benefits unfold already.

"It’s expanding learning beyond the traditional classroom, creating an immersive experience across digital design platforms, and extending use of hardware and software,” explains Sam. She also sees the girls learning to “fail fast” – where student understanding and development thrives in rapidly testing ideas through coding, digital prototyping, surface designs, building worlds, 3D models and AR/VR.

“It’s expanding learning beyond the traditional classroom, creating an immersive experience across digital design platforms, and extending use of hardware and software,” explains Sam.

“Empowerment in digital use and design comes when we are curious, competent and connected. So just getting on these tools and trying out each space, is a great starting point for our active learners,” she says.

FabLABs – a design revolution

The MIT FabLab concept is the most wellknown example of a ‘digital maker space’. Back in 2001, at the famous tech Mecca, MIT, Professor Neil Gershenfeld, founded the ‘Centre for Bits and Atoms’ (CBA) that explored the boundary between computer science and physical science.

CBA was all about how to turn data into things, and things into data. His popular class 'How to Make (Almost) Anything' was a laboratory full of machinery, tasked with allowing students to do exactly that.

Since then, the concept of FabLabs has grown globally, and spurred a ‘design revolution’, creating a wealth of invention and enabling students or designers to conceive and construct designs that would be very difficult to develop using traditional methods.

In our very own FabLAB, we have extended physical and digital modelling experiences with a range of additional printers, including those for textiles, and fabric creation, casting of product/ character design for use in animation, and some class sets of 3D printed class prototypes.

“This investment supports skills in surface design, such as wallpapers, carpets and fabrics, and means we can print at a large scale, in-house," says Sam. “Most schools would need to outsource the actual printing of the work, reducing the learning opportunities.”

digitalSTUDIO

Our digital studio lab introduces girls to vinyl cutting, 3D scanners, resin 3D printers and CAD applications, digital animation and editing hardware and software.

A recent example is where girls could make a digital twin in a Kahunui metaverse, so that parents will be able to experience their child’s journey digitally.

0n roboticsLAB

In our roboticsLAB, students apply computational thinking to test and show their digital capability.

The investment will include more class sets of key tools supporting our students to learn programming, logic sequencing, and computer science principles. We will expand our current VEX Kits for competitions, enabling us to expand the number of students who can compete.

The increased investment will support more Junior School students to compete in the Robocup, and we will be also investing in more of the specific tools that encourage entrepreneurship, and are key for teaching prototyping, and pitching ideas (across both schools).

Teaching for the future

Stakeholders across St Cuthbert’s understand that investing in technology will open pathways that deliver on our Strategic Vision.

As Sam points out, “It helps us to move beyond the traditional delivery of technology courses and instead contribute to our mission to “Make Girls Amazing.”

Sam believes that to be ‘Amazing’ girls will benefit from being informed digital storytellers. “They will be the author of their own digital story through the digital tools and platforms that give greater perspective to their outcomes, either digital or informed by digital manipulation and play.”

Being able to connect to industry standard machines and programmes will see our girls seeing, feeling and interacting in the third and fourth dimensions which digital worlds and thinking demand.

“The creative industries of today and the future require the shift from construction sensibility to more sensory and user informed experience – the ability to craft story. Informing and extending this kind of design thinking requires the culture and resources that the Labs offer” emphasises Sam.

Sam gives an example of students being able to capture spatial environments in DVC that go beyond the page, of hand drawings and renderings, to scaled digital modelling and fully immersive digital designs – all rather mind blowing for many of us! However, Sam has seen the technology evolve over her years as an educator, and in fact, as a practising architect before her teaching career.

“Throughout my years teaching and as an architect, I have loved working with the latest tools, and engaging in collaborative and integrated design,” says Sam. “As a teacher, I’ve honed my passion for exploring how spaces support studentled design. Creating and connecting meaningful experiences to assure all students can engage and progress, is at the forefront of my practice.”

Since her arrival at St Cuthbert’s in 2022, Sam believes that it’s the people and culture that stand out for her, as well as the wider vision to Make Girls Amazing. “I see ‘Amazing’ as a call to action. This call has been central to our work in forging the Digital Innovation Lab.”

Women in STEM

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields are some of the most progressive, innovative and valuable areas of study. However, since the 18th century, these fields have remained predominantly male. Even though we’ve seen some progress, women in STEM are still highly underrepresented across the world. According to the United Nations, women only make up 28% of the current STEM workforce. At university level in New Zealand, men outnumber women in most STEM fields.

The positive impact of digital design and fabrication techniques on STEM and design are already far reaching in areas such as architecture, engineering, industrial/product design and animation. That’s why it’s been exciting for us to see many St Cuthbert’s graduates who have broken the glass ceiling in the STEM and design fields.

In the near future, given programmes like ours, the long-awaited shift change will be just around the corner and if you’re lucky, a delicious 3D printed cheesecake!